Martin Jankowski is a German writer and poet.

Life

He grew up in Gotha

Gotha (town)

Gotha is a town in Thuringia, within the central core of Germany. It is the capital of the district of Gotha.- History :The town has existed at least since the 8th century, when it was mentioned in a document signed by Charlemagne as Villa Gotaha . Its importance derives from having been chosen in...

 and was part of the GDR's oppositional movement and the legendary Monday demonstrations

Monday demonstrations in East Germany

The Monday demonstrations in East Germany in 1989 and 1990 were a series of peaceful political protests against the authoritarian communist government of the German Democratic Republic that took place every Monday evening.- Overview :...

 (that lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall

Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...

) of the 1980s in Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

 as singer and poet. Besides numerous songs, poems and narrations he has also published texts for the stage, essays and one novel. He currently lives in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

. Since 2000 he worked as author and curator for several museums and international art projects, amongst them the legendary Heinz Berggruen Collection

Berggruen Museum

The Berggruen Museum is a collection of modern art classics in Berlin, which the collector and dealer Heinz Berggruen, in a "gesture of reconciliation", gave to his native city for a price well below its actual value. The most notable artists on display include Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti,...

 and the Ethnological Museum of Berlin

Ethnological Museum of Berlin

The Ethnological Museum in Berlin is one of the largest ethnological museums in the world. It houses half a million pre-industrial objects, acquired primarily from the German voyages of exploration and colonialization of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries...

. In the spring of 2003 he was guest lecturer for new German literature in Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

 at the Universitas Indonesia

University of Indonesia

The Universitas Indonesia, is a state, comprehensive world class university located in Depok, West Java and Salemba, Jakarta, Indonesia. Universitas Indonesia is the oldest tertiary-level educational institution in Indonesia...

. From 2001 to 2004 he was also involved in the coordination of the internationales literaturfestival berlin and is now responsible for each year’s “Specials” section of the festival. From November 2003 to May 2004, he was chairman of the Deutsch-Indonesisches Kulturinstitut in Berlin and since May 2004 hosts the “Literatursalon am Kollwitzplatz“ for the literary magazine ndl. Since November 2005, he is also chairman of the Berliner Literarische Aktion e.V.. In 2006, he received the Alfred-Döblin-grant of the Deutsche Akademie der Künste

Akademie der Künste

The Akademie der Künste, Berlin is an arts institution in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in 1696 by Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg as the Prussian Academy of Arts, an academic institution where members could meet and discuss and share ideas...

 and undertook a reading tour through Indonesia sponsored by the IndonesiaTera foundation and the German embassy. From 2007 to 2010 he also hosted the “Literatursalon Mitte” in Berlin’s historical quarter Scheunenviertel

Scheunenviertel

Scheunenviertel refers to a neighborhood of Mitte in the centre of Berlin. It is situated to the north of the medieval Altberlin area, east of the Rosenthaler Straße and Hackescher Markt...

. Besides these numerous activities, Jankowski regularly works as editor and theatre director. For 2011 he directs the "Jakarta Berlin Arts Festival" in Berlin.

Works

• Rabet oder Das Verschwinden einer Himmelsrichtung. Roman. München: via verbis, 1999. ISBN 3933902037
• Frische Knochen aus Banyuwangi - the poems of Agus R. Sarjono
  Agus R. Sarjono
  Agus R. Sarjono is an Indonesian poet and author. In 1988, he graduated from Department of Indonesian Literature of IKIP Bandung, and then finished his postgraduate program in Universitas Indonesia at the faculty of literature and cultural studies in 2002.He writes poems, short stories, essays,...
  
   (translated into German by Berthold Damshäuser and Inge Dumpél, edited and with an essay by Martin Jankowski, 2003). ISBN 3-933149-31-2
• Seifenblasenmaschine – Berliner Szenen. Narrations and short stories. Hamburg; Berlin: Schwartzkopff Buchwerke, 2005. ISBN 3-937738-32-0
• Indonesisches Sekundenbuch. Poems, bilingual (Indonesian-German), translation by Katrin Bandel, Indonesian adaptation by Dorothea Rosa Herliany, introduction by Goenawan Mohamad
  Goenawan Mohamad
  Goenawan Mohamad is a renowned Indonesian poet and man of letters.Goenawan Mohamad was born in Batang, Central Java. His early writings include Potret Seorang Penyair Muda Sebagai Si Malin Kundang and Seks, Sastra, Kita ,'"Kesusastraan dan Kekuasaan' Goenawan Mohamad (born 29 July 1941) is a...
  
  , Magelang (Java): Indonesiatera, 2006. ISBN 929-775-001-x
• Mäuse. Short novel, SuKuLTur Verlag, Schöner Lesen No. 53, Berlin 2006. ISBN 3-937737-60-x
• Der Tag, der Deutschland veränderte - 9. Oktober 1989. Essay. Series published by the Sächsischer Landesbeauftragter für die Stasiunterlagen No. 7, Leipzig 2007. ISBN 978-3-374-02506-0
• U(DYS)TOPIA - das Auftauchen von Mythen, Märchen und Legenden in der Gegenwart Regiospectra Berlin, 2010, ISBN 978-3-940132-14-7.

Awards

• open mike 1993
• author’s grant by the Stiftung Kulturfonds 1996
• working grant of the Berlin Senate 1997
• annual award of the DVLG (Jahrespreis für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte der DVLG) 1998
• grant (Alfred Döblin Stipendium) of the German Akademie der Künste
  Akademie der Künste
  The Akademie der Künste, Berlin is an arts institution in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in 1696 by Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg as the Prussian Academy of Arts, an academic institution where members could meet and discuss and share ideas...
  
  2006
• working grant of the Berlin Senate 2007
• grant for cultural exchange 2008

Literature

• Grub, Frank Thomas: Wende' und 'Einheit' im Spiegel der deutschsprachigen Literatur (5.3.7. pp.). Berlin, New York: de Gruyter, 2003.
• Grant, Janet L.: Post-Prenzlauer Berg in: Exberliner No. 53. Berlin, 2007.
• Kürschners Deutscher Literaturkalender, K.G. Saur Verlag, Berlin, 2006/2007.

External links

• Literatur by and on Martin Jankowski in the catalogue of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
• http://www.martin-jankowski.de
• http://www.berliner-literarische-aktion.de
• http://www.poetenladen.de/martin-jankowski.htm
• http://www.jakarta-berlin.de